Join us from 7:00-9:00pm for the launch of Pastelegram's new publishing project, Breach Press!

Dedicated to translation work, Breach Press publishes bilingual editions of stories, plays, poetry and other short form writing in letterpressed and handbound books and broadsides. For each publication, our editors work with the translator to develop a new visual format in conversation with the original text.

Our first book, The Poet and the Prostitute, features a 17th century story from Bengal about a poet who finds Krishna through the teachings of a prostitute. It's an adventurous, surreal tale, and one of the rare instances in the Bengali tradition in which women appear as teachers of men. The text was translated by literary scholar Ishan Chakrabarti and includes illustrations by Natalie Bradford. Bound horizontally, the format of the book references traditional Bengali manuscripts, handwritten on long palm leaves.

At 7:30pm Ishan Chakrabarti will perform selections from the original Bangla text, traditionally sung out loud.

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Ishan Chakrabarti is a Ph.D. student in the department of South Asian Languages & Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He is broadly interested in the literary history of pre-colonial South Asia, with a focus on drama, biography, lyric poetry, and literary theory from around 1000-1700 CE in the Sanskrit, Bangla, Hindi, and Maithili languages. He's also curious about the comparative study of the interaction between forms of political power and ascetic and/or mystic groups. He used to live in Austin, still misses it, and is excited about being back for a few days.

Natalie Bradford is an artist and illustrator currently working in Austin, TX. She completed her BFA at UT Austin in 2016. Her interests include printmaking, pro wrestling, and discovering which vegetables taste best deep fried.